Movie Review - Supernova (2000)

“In the farthest reaches of space, something has gone terribly wrong.”

I love intense science fiction movies. Super Nova is such a movie. Add an ensemble case of my favorite actors and you have me in happy sci-fi land.

The medical ship Nightingale roams space waiting for medical emergencies. The times between missions are sometimes very long and dull. The captain watches Tom and Jerry cartoons. The computer tech is having a relationship with his computer ‘Sweetie’. The medical techs make out at any given moment. The doctor plays ping pong with a robot. The co-pilot is a recovering drug addict. Then it goes to hell in a hand basket when they respond to a priority one medical emergency.

The concept of super novas is just plain cool to me. While this movie is supposedly listed as horror, there isn’t much that struck me as scary or horrible. I liked the plotline, the characters and the special effects. Even the idea of ninth dimensional matter is fascinating to me. Plenty of things here to send me off into happy geek moments while watching the movie.

I liked James Spader in this role. (I loved him in the Stargate movie.) I liked his low-voiced commands and strong features. Excuse me but he’s eye candy. He did a nice job as Nick Vanzant a recovering addict who kicks the habit on his own terms and takes command without hesitation when the captain dies. Angela Bassett was lovely in the role of Dr. Kaela Evers. Strong, intelligent and capable of making the decisions she had to. The chemistry between the two of them was obvious to me and I thought it was realistically portrayed.

In my opinion though I thought Robert Forster’s role was far too short and they killed him rather nastily. He as the captain took a calculated risk and paid for it in the worst way. What a lousy way to go. Lou Diamond Phillips was more eye candy and was great as an older man trying to keep his much younger girlfriend happy. When he gets physically in contact with the ninth dimensional matter it’s almost erotic. Robin Tunney was cute in the role of the girlfriend who is obviously easily seduced. Then she feels guilty when she finds him with the object doing pretty much what she was doing with someone else. Definitely a bit weirdness but entertaining none the less.

Other aspects of the movie that fascinated me were during the inter-dimensional warp jumps. Just out of curiosity I ran them in slow speed and saw all kind of images from later in the movie. Quite a bit of foreshadowing there which I thought were well done. Interspersed with the crew going through the experience makes one wonder if they were aware of these flashes or not.

All in all it’s three stars on my science fiction favorites and I recommend it without hesitation.